Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A method of planning or monitoring a product pallet configuration by a palletizer, the method comprising graphically animating a palletization of a plurality of packaged products through creating animated packaged products on a graphical user interface of a control device of the palletizer, and moving the animated packaged products into a position on an animation conveyor created and displayed on the graphical user interface to plan or program a pallet layer of the products for execution by the palletizer, wherein after the moving step the animating illustrates the palletization to be performed by the palletizer in corresponding real time as a pallet build progresses, wherein the animating is shown with a video feed of the pallet build performed by the palletizer.
2. The method of claim 1, wherein after the moving step, further comprising illustrating the animating of the palletization to be performed by the palletizer by showing on the graphical user interface the plurality of packaged products travelling individually on the animation conveyor for confirmation of the palletization prior to initiation of the palletizer.
3. The method of claim 1, wherein the animating comprises illustrating placement of a number of products expected by the control device.
4. The method of claim 1, wherein the animating comprises illustrating the plurality of packaged products traveling individually on the animation conveyor of the graphical user interface into a predetermined pallet configuration.
5. The method of claim 4, wherein the animating comprises an isometric rendering of the conveyor and the packaged products.
6. The method of claim 1, further comprising animating on the graphical user interface the movement of each of the products relative to each other on one or more conveyors of the palletizer.
7. The method of claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface is attached to the palletizer.
8. The method of claim 1, wherein moving the animated products forms a virtual pallet layer, and further comprising the palletizer implementing the virtual pallet layer by forming a corresponding pallet layer of the products.
9. The method of claim 1, wherein the moving the animated packaged products is controlled by touchscreen controls displayed on the graphical user interface.
10. The method of claim 1, wherein the touchscreen controls allow each animated packaged product to be rotated and moved into the position to complete a layout configuration which then is used to program a robotic arm to make the layout configuration on a palletizer conveyor using real packaged products.
11. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the animated packaged products is a packaged product image representation on the graphical user interface.
13. The palletizer of claim 12, wherein the virtual depiction comprises moveable packaged product images and a digital control configured to move the packaged product images on the graphical user interface.
14. The palletizer of claim 12, wherein the virtual depiction comprises an animated depiction of a formation of the palletization.
15. The palletizer of claim 12, wherein the virtual depiction illustrates placement of a number of the packaged products expected for the palletization by the control device.
16. The palletizer of claim 12, wherein the virtual depiction comprises illustration of the plurality of packaged products traveling individually on the product conveyor into a predetermined pallet configuration.
17. The palletizer of claim 12, wherein the virtual depiction comprises an isometric rendering of the conveyor and the packaged products.
18. The palletizer of claim 12, wherein the virtual depiction animates on the graphical user interface the movement of each of the packaged products relative to each other one or more conveyors of the palletizer.
19. The palletizer of claim 12, wherein the virtual depiction further comprises illustrating the animating of the palletization to be performed by the palletizer by showing on the graphical user interface the plurality of packaged products of the virtual depiction travelling individually on the animation conveyor for confirmation of the palletization prior to initiation of the palletizer.
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April 25, 2023
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